The Clearing
by great-growlithe-gamer
Summary: He shifted the flowers in his hands, and finally came to stand in front of the slab of rock in the dead center of the clearing. The wildflowers in the clearing shook in the breeze as Ralph gently lay the flowers he'd brought with him in front of it. Real world-AU, a sad halloween-ish one-shot.


**AN: Someone challenged me to write a sad story, and I had been planning on a Halloween one-shot at the time, so now I have this one-shot, which was increasingly hard for me to write. of course, I'm not the best sad story writer and I don't think it's horribly sad but I hurt my own feelings writing it, soo, uh, here it is I guess. **

Ralph smoothed over his shirt and overalls, grabbed the flowers he'd picked out earlier, lavender colored foxtails, and headed for the door. He was a muscular man, and currently his brother was visiting his house, a little run down building in the woods, also known as the middle of nowhere.

Ralph had lived there for a while, after he'd been kicked out of the apartment for roughhousing when he was 20. He'd lived by the woods for a long time and usual not much happened. Nobody else lived around there.

Felix and his wife were in his kitchen, and they glanced over at him when they heard him unlocking the door.

"Where are you going, Ralph? Are those- flowers?!" Felix exclaimed brightly as he got up from the table to look at his brother's small bundle of flowers.

"Ralph, you sly dog… who's the lucky gal? Does someone else live around here that I don't know about?" Felix grinned cheekily, and Ralph just ran a hand through his hair in an exasperated manner.

"No, Felix. It's, just a girl I know, okay? Not romantic, believe me." He knew it must've been pretty weird, but he wasn't going to tell them why he had flowers. Never in a million years. And they wouldn't believe him if he did.

Felix just shrugged and made another expression of 'I'll keep your secret' apparently still convinced it was romance in the air, and went back to his wife. "Have fun anyways, Ralph! Tell me all about it when you get back!"

'_Not gonna happen, sorry Felix.'_ Ralph thought to himself with what was almost a mental chuckle. He took the keys to his house with him as he went out the door, locking it behind him and tucking the key away into his overall pocket.

He walked into the woods slowly with a growing sense of purpose as he entered the clearing that he'd grown familiar with. He would spend hours there every day. He shifted the flowers in his hands, and finally came to stand in front of the slab of rock in the dead center of the clearing. The wildflowers in the clearing shook in the breeze as Ralph gently lay the flowers he'd brought with him in front of it. The others that he'd planted over a long period of time were almost like an extension of the garden he had at home to help with when he felt he was having anger issues.

He reread the tomb and sat down slowly in front of it, though not on the patch of ground that had no grass growing on it, and flowers that he'd brought from days before.

_Vanellope Von Schweetz_

_1997-2006 _

He sighed, and glanced at the small wooden cross he'd put behind the grave after he'd found it. Much, much too young. The grave was too shallow, so small. He felt sad just looking at it. Life wasn't supposed to be that short. The white roses from the day before seemed wilted and a bit disgruntled, if flowers could be such a thing, as if somebody had been moving and examining them closely, touching the petals until some fell off. They remained intact though.

A familiar weight formed on his shoulder.

"You know smelly, it takes a lot of the fun out of your visits when you just sit there and mope about this kind of stuff."

He let out a halfhearted chuckle and glanced at the small girl feigning disinterest on his shoulder, glancing away from the rock.

"Sorry then. Just thinkin'." He shrugged, and she groaned.

"C'mon, we both know you don't _think!_" She whined, and he grinned at her insistence but kept his eyes fixed on the stone.

"How would you know that, exactly?"

"Special ghosty powers that you don't get to know about 'till you're dead, now play with me already!"

Ralph retold the story to himself as he got up and gave in to her eager insistence that he play with her.

Vanellope had been murdered at age 9, by some guy with a bad rep and a racecar, Turbo, who took her out to the woods and offed her, one day. He wasn't sure why, but he knew that word had gotten around that Vanellope was doing pretty great over at that place with the go-karts, and there was talk that if she kept it up she'd probably be a drag racer or something when she grew up.

Turbo was well-known as a crazy, crazy man, so somehow he got it into his head that she was competition. Vanellope wouldn't talk about _how_ he'd gotten her into the woods, all he knew is that the orphanage just declared her missing on the day of the murder.

Turbo took her to the clearing and did the deed when he was sure nobody was around to see, and nobody was. But one day, Ralph wandered into the clearing and found a body. And that was the day he met her, too.

He had gone to look for any kind of fruit-bearing plants, looking for seeds for the garden he'd started as part of his anger-management therapy. He walked into the clearing and saw a young-looking girl laying in the wildflowers face-down. A few withered flowers and leaves lay atop her body, and Ralph saw a crow land near her. He walked closer to the girl to investigate, scaring the bird off.

He shook her, moving some of the foliage off her, and when he got no response, he lifted the girl, only to find multiple dark red stains on a hoodie he was pretty sure used to be a mint green color. He looked at the forest ground and saw a few insects, and a dark stain on the grass. He turned her over to confirm his suspicions…and was met with a blank expression and glazed over eyes, and some flakey dried blood.

He called the cops, naturally, as one would if they found a dead body, but then he felt a tug at his pant leg and looked down to see the same girl he was carrying, pulling at his leg with a scared and hopeful expression.

He almost dropped the body.

He never managed to say anything to her that first day, despite her insistence that she was real. The next day he came back and saw that someone had already placed a tombstone there. No funeral was ever held, and he rushed back home before anything else happened, returning the next day with flowers, some nice white marigolds and pretty blue forget-me-not flowers from his garden and placing them carefully atop the grave. She showed up again, and this time, he talked with her.

"Why were you out in the woods, anyways?" She'd asked critically, and he responded with a shrug, and a nervous, "I live around here…" and later a snarky comment about being in the 'tree-trimming department', when he'd gotten a bit more comfortable.

They talked for a few days and he gradually accepted the fact that she was real, or at least, that he was going insane. One day he asked her how she died, and she just gave him a name and a whimper.

Ralph gradually pressed the issue until she spilled and he soon found out what happened. He searched the clearing, despite Vanellope's whining and trying to tell him to get over it, and eventually he found evidence that Turbo had been there in the form of the knife that Turbo had used.

A few days later and Turbo was in jail.

Ralph had been coming back to the area every day since then with unwavering determination. She was waiting, he showed up. He showed up, she was waiting. Nobody else had come so far. Ralph didn't tell anyone.

Some days he wondered what this said about him, that his best and only friend was a little kid, and a dead one at that. He obviously didn't get along well with other people in society, and she obviously couldn't talk to other people, so the two just…got along. Sure they had play-arguments and maybe one or two real ones, but they were friends.

He wished he could've met her before all of this, could've adopted her or something, watched her grow up like other kids. But he came back and, day after day, month after month, and year after year, she remained nine years old.

Some days she wouldn't get up and talk and goof around with him, instead clutching her head or her stomach and complaining about not feeling well, or feeling phantom pains from any of the places she'd been wounded before her death. He felt bad about not being able to comfort her then, and stood by and tried to talk calmly to her until pain subsided.

Other times he would show up with a scowl and be moody in general while speaking to her, until she eventually got him to calm down and spill the beans about whatever had managed to tick him off, whether it be something that happened at work, over a phone call, or even something trivial he'd done himself, like accidentally breaking something in his house.

He idly picked apart a rose angel flower as he paced the clearing and listened to Vanellope go on about something along the lines of there being a deer in the clearing that she had thought was adorable.

He was shaken out of his thoughts as Vanellope caught his full attention by changing her demeanor. "Hey, Stinkbrain, someone's comin'..." She sounded unsure, and Ralph had no time to protest before she vanished into thin air and the footsteps in his direction became more apparent.

Felix shoved his way through the clearing. "I found you tw-" Felix stopped mid-sentence and walked into the clearing more slowly as he caught sight of the grave.

"Oh." He wandered over as Ralph sighed lethargically and sat down again, upset that his visit had been cut short.

"Ralph…I'm sorry. I- gee, so young…" Felix stammered as he read over the gravestone. Calhoun showed up in a similar manner to Felix, except she was just walking as cool and collected as always.

She stopped in front of the grave and muttered something under her breath, probably something about her days in the army and about how the world was a bad place.

"Well, you found it. Here's the girl I've been visiting with flowers, Felix. I hope it's as romantic as you thought, except, oh, yeah, she's nine years old and kinda, oh I don't know, _dead? _Go throw a party, you found my significant other, now can you please leave?" Ralph said irritably, and of course Vanellope chose this time to show up again, peeking out from behind the gravestone with a half-laugh.

"Aww, Ralphie! You got a girlfriend I don't know about?" She teased, and Ralph just sighed and raised a palm to his face.

For some reason, however, neither Calhoun or Felix reacted to her voice, or appearance.

"What the..?" He mumbled under his breath, as Vanellope did something similar.

"Hey, guys. Nobody else is gonna make a comment? Is this a normal thing for you guys, ghosts? Darn, I mean, I thought this was kinda a surprising thing…" She grumbled, crossing her arms and drifting over towards the couple in front of her own gravestone. She lay in front of Calhoun's face, floating as if there was an invisible ground underneath her as she lay on her front side and waved a hand in front of the stoic soldier's face. Calhoun didn't react at all, and Vanellope caught on, now trying harder to get her attention.

She grew more and more frustrated until eventually she just gave up and walked over to Ralph, arms crossed.

"They're probably boring, anyways…" she grumbled, although she buried her face in his shirt and he struggled to hug the girl. She was almost solid, when she wanted to be. The sensation it created was almost like that of water or a strong wind. He could feel the opposing force, that being her, pressing against him, but if he made contact like a hug and held her too hard he'd simply pass through her.

A better representation is like the invisible force between two magnets of the same energy type. It was there and both sides could feel the tension, but it could also be pushed past or through.

He held her and glanced at Felix and Calhoun questioningly. Felix looked back at him and made a face at the way Ralph had his arms, which must've looked strange to someone who couldn't see the other person.

Vanellope scowled and released herself from the hug.

She walked over to Felix and looked straight at him, he was the shortest living person there and she could almost look him in the eyes. He passed through her to get to Ralph but stopped abruptly and shivered. "G-gee, did it just get colder over here?"

"That was just me." Vanellope piped up, but still received no response. "You know, horror movie clichés are fun and all but I do wish you guys would notice me."

Ralph frowned and was about to say something to her when he realized that Felix and Calhoun were still over there. He wasn't sure if he should talk to her or leave it until they left.

"Guys, can you just go? I'd like some alone time over here, if you don't mind. It helps, sometimes, you know." He lied, though with good intentions at heart.

"Of course, brother. But, if I may, uh, how did you know this kid? Was she one of your friend's kids? Did you, a-adopt during those few years I haven't seen you? Why else would the grave be near your house?" Felix asked gently, and Ralph and Vanellope exchanged glances.

"Yeah. You would've loved her, Felix." He answered, before anything could be said. He didn't stop to think about it, only nodded along with Felix and Calhoun, who slowly walked out of the clearing.

He waited until they were a good distance away before letting out a sigh.

"Really? You would've..?" Vanellope blinked in surprise, and he nodded.

"I've known you for a while now, kiddo. It counts for something, right?" He shrugged, and there was a feeling of numbing cold on his leg as she tried to hug it too hard and went through it.

"Ugh…" she made a face and huffed angrily. "You know, I never thought that I'd end up waiting for someone to die, not in a way that meant they were friends of mine, anyways…."

"Yeah, but, I think you might move on before that, kid. I'm not that great or anything, I'm sure you'll get bored of me eventually." Ralph waved it off, and she shook her head vehemently.

"No! I'll be waiting here every day, and the day you don't show up, I _will_ be expecting you later, maybe in a similar condition to mine, and if you don't show up, I'll go uh, haunt you or something! Yeah, I'll haunt your house." She crossed her arms proudly and he laughed, making as if to ruffle her hair but not actually doing it because passing a hand through her made it _cold_.

"You try that, kid. I think I might like it, even. Keep me company without having to look at your grave all day. You did say it takes a lot of fun out of the visit, didn't you?" She laughed and did a little fist pump.

"Yeah! It'll be like a sleepover! For the rest of your life, heheh…" She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly as she realized how long that would be. "To be honest, Ralph, I'm kinda worried you'll be the one that gets tired of me…"

"Naw, you're too fun. Hey, how come you don't come 'haunt' me, anyways? You get bored so easily I almost expect it by now. I mean, what do you do in the middle of the night or when I'm not around?" Ralph asked curiously, and she pointed towards the wildflowers with her thumb.

"I do get bored easily, but I got nothing but time, and I don't feel like bugging you all day…flowers are boring too, but hey, I've gotten the chance to watch grass grow, right? Heheh…heh….I can't even leave, you know that? I have an unresolved purpose and I have to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait some more…..so what else to do?"

"You can bother me whenever. I don't like a lot of people anyways."

"You're inviting the dead girl to bunk in your house, really?"

"Didn't you hear? I think I just adopted you, kiddo."

"Thanks, Ralph…"

The two lay in the clearing, and Vanellope seemed to be trying, with only a small amount of difficulty, to keep herself grounded. "So, does this mean I get to scare your guests off from now on?"

Ralph laughed just a little. "Yeah, next time I order a pizza, go wild. Somebody comes by to drop off mail, pull a poltergeist on 'em."

Vanellope giggled and stood up, making as if to help him up as well, even though it was a useless gesture. "Let's get to work on that routine, then. It's a shame your brother can't see me and neither can his wife, but maybe they'll just be practice, right?"

"Probably not. Don't want anyone callin' the ghostbusters, now do we?" He flashed a grin and she cracked up.

"Haha,yeah, 'ghostbusters'! I don't even think they're real…"

"They are if you head to the right streets with the right bars." He started walking towards his house and she followed along behind him.

"R-really?!" she certainly wasn't laughing anymore, now taking on an expression of panic. "Are you sure? Please don't call them!"

"It was just a joke, kid. Calm down, and besides, why would I ever need to call the ghostbusters?" he asked as he continued to his house, nearly reaching it now.

"For _ghosts_, genius." She clarified as he got up to the door.

"Well I invited you, didn't I? And besides, I already told you I'm pretty sure there's no such thing, just a joke." He unlocked the door and headed into the house, acknowledging that Felix and Calhoun were probably asleep on his bed, and he got to sleep on the couch, aka his guest bed.

He pulled a blanket over himself and then glanced over at Vanellope, who looked bored.

"You need something to do?"

"No, it's…it's fine." She said carefully, and he decided to leave it at that, too tired to get into a debate just then.

**(POV Shift)**

Vanellope sat on top of the mantle and continued her watch. She didn't have anything better to do, right? Why not just watch Ralph sleep?

She was so bored.

Other people, when they were bored, they could think about something serious. The meaning of life, maybe. (she laughed inwardly at this idea as it crossed her mind)

Deciding that she'd seen Ralph sleeping enough, she headed into the other room to look at Calhoun and Felix. They were also sleeping, and she debated trying to mess with them. She decided against it.

She let out a bored sigh as she allowed herself to drift into a laying down position, floating in one place and just generally doing ghosty crap that she was starting to hate.

Dammit, why couldn't anyone else just see her?

People had wandered past her grave but Ralph seemed to be the only one who saw her, that first time. She'd gone to torment Turbo in his prison cell, once.

But it wasn't the same when he couldn't see her doing it.

Ralph had been worried about her while she was gone that day - _worried about her! –_ and she decided she wouldn't wander away like that again. She had a pretty good thing going, but sometimes she wondered what would have happened if she had met Ralph before she died. She dropped the train of thought when her mind wandered to what happened after he was gone, what if she was still here, and anything like that.

She didn't know why she was still here to be honest. She supposed it might have been that her unresolved purpose changed? At first all she could think about after death was 'Trubo has to get what's coming to him' but by the time he finally did, her new one track mind was telling her she needed a friend, a parent, someone that would be around her constantly. And that someone was Ralph.

So she was waiting. It sounded mean out of context, but, she was waiting for him to die. She wanted him to be able to hang out with her for a long time, for as long as there would be time for her to be conscious and living or, after-living, whatever.

So she would wait. Years, months, days, heck, he might die in the next few hours if something unfortunate were to happen. She was waiting for something to happen. She obviously wasn't coming back to life, but in the meantime, who else was dying? That was the question she was asking herself again and again. She'd heard someone at a bus stop talking about an orphanage burning down once and for a moment wondered if it had been the one she was at, but quickly realized they were talking about one far away from hers, in some 'England' place. She left the bus station after that and headed back to the clearing after her midnight venture, content for a while with her travel and able to actually fall asleep, which was a rarity for her as a ghost.

Turns out she didn't need sleep. But it was one heck of a nice escape. A few more blissful hours of not knowing her surroundings or being conscious of anything. She was really and truly dead to the world, but the sensation wasn't frightening, only calming. She was still functioning like a person would, is what it reminded her.

She could probably never watch a scary ghost movie again. She would feel, well, insulted, to be honest.

She pondered all of this, and soon headed back into the room Ralph was in, to see him shifting on the couch.

She moved over to the side of it, a faintly visible blue glow coming off her dumb stupid whatever she could even call the surface of her whatever a ghost's body is called.

She leaned over his head and caught him mumbling things she couldn't hear and tossing and turning fitfully in his sleep.

After a short while, she couldn't stand to see the discomfort anymore and tried to console him without waking him up, curling into a small ball just barely on his chest.

He shivered.

She hated this so much. Why did ghosts have to be freezing cold all the time? She shuddered herself but tried to stay in the same spot on him to lessen the effect, eventually managing to cuddle as best she could.

Her eyelids drooped as she realized that she felt…comfortable.

Happy.

She started to doze off on top of him as he calmed in his sleep and gradually whimpers and incoherent, uncomfortable sounds from him changed to gentle snoring and a crooked half-smile.

As she finally relinquished her consciousness, sleep came easily.

**(POV shift)**

Calhoun awake the next day and went into the living room, noticing that Ralph was still asleep, and noting with a pang of sympathy the small shape on top of him.

'_I've seen them too, soldier. I've seen them too.'_ She thought to herself as memories of the fallen returned to her slowly. She returned to Felix after this, and their visit with Ralph ended later that day.

She almost smiled when she saw the kid waving along with Ralph at the porch when they began to drive off. She guessed that those two would be having fun until Ralph's time came. And when it did...

Maybe then she'd say something to Felix about all of this.

**AN: And the story ends here, yay. Again, I usually write humor, and this is just a bit late for a Halloween story that isn't even scary or Halloween-themed, so I don't really know if it turned out okay or not. I am still doing my other story, I just shelved it for a little bit to work on this. Anyways, thank you for reading this one-shot! **

**-Great Growlithe Gamer**


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